4 months ago 31st Jul 14:00
Britain's Queen Victoria's bloomers fetched £4,500 at auction yesterday (30.07.08).
The hand-stitched garment - bearing the monogram VR - was expected to sell for around £500, but a Canadian buyer splashed out the huge sum.
The bloomers, which had an incredibly 50inch waist, date from the 1890s.
The garment had remained in the Lincolnshire family of one of the queen's ladies-in waiting until the auction in Derby.
These pants, considering their provenance and pedigree, are very exciting; we know that they are Queen Victoria's.
Auctioneer Charles Hanson said: "These pants, considering their provenance and pedigree, are very exciting; we know that they are Queen Victoria's."
Charles added that the bloomers were an interesting piece of social history because they showed Queen Victoria was "a very big lady of quite small stature with a very wide girth".
By the end of her life, Queen Victoria was only 4ft 10ins and chose to wear lose-fitting clothes rather than the normal corseted garments fashionable at the time.
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